Mumbai: In the multi-city action against Congress-controlled Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has served notices to property registrars in Delhi, Lucknow, and Mumbai, directing them to take possession of attached properties worth Rs 661 crore.
About The Case
In Mumbai, the notices were served to M/s Jindal South West Projects Ltd, occupying the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors at the nine-storey Herald House in Bandra East. As these floors were leased by AJL to South West Projects, the firm has been directed to transfer the rent and lease amount every month in favour of the ED Director, who is investigating the alleged AJL money laundering case.
In May 2020, the ED had also attached a portion (valued at Rs 16.38 crore) of this Bandra building. The attachment order was issued against AJL and its Chairman, MD Moti Lal Vora. The nine-floor building has two basements and a total built-up area of 15,000 sq mt, with its total value estimated at Rs 120 crore.
The ED has alleged that the Congress high command and senior leaders, including ex-Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vora, pledged a land “illegally allotted” to AJL in Haryana’s Panchkula to get a loan from a Syndicate Bank branch in Delhi to build Herald House in Bandra.
The plot on which the building was constructed was allotted to AJL in 1983 by the Maharashtra government for a Nehru Memorial Library and research centre. The plot was originally reserved for a hostel for students from the Scheduled Caste category. It remained vacant for almost 30 years until AJL (the publisher of the now defunct National Herald) decided to build a cooperative bank and commodity exchange, paying the requisite fees to the Mumbai suburban collector in 2004 for claiming occupancy rights.
AJL entered into an agreement with the Swarup Group of Industries, which paid Rs 10 lakh with the intention of developing an academic library for research work along with a cooperative bank. However, the revised plans for commercial use of the Bandra plot did not mention the proposed library; it was moved in 2012 before the BMC, which granted permission to start work a year later.
The ED had initiated a probe into the Panchkula property (sector 6) after the CBI and the Haryana police filed a case that it was fraudulently allotted to AJL in 1982. The plot, ED said, was “resumed” by the estate officer of Haryana Urban Development Authority in 1992 as AJL did not comply with the allotment conditions.
According to the ED probe, Hooda, in 2005, allegedly misused his official position and allotted the plot afresh in the guise of re-allotment to AJL at original rates plus interest in violation of rules.
